A few times a year my grandparents will slaughter one of their cattle for beef. They, like many in rural Zimbabwe do not have electricity so most of the meat is dried.
The meat is dried by cutting it into long strips and hung over smoke usually in the kitchen. Sometimes salt is added and sometimes it is not. Traditionally made chimukuyu (dried meat or beef jerky in American English) does not have any other spices added unlike what you would buy to snack on.
I have not had chimukuyu in a very long time, the kind that is sold here in Bermuda is not quite what you buy to cook. I dried my own meat in the oven for fours on 175F. I only added salt to the meat. Then I soaked it again before cooking it so that cooking time would be short.
This recipe requires you to boil the meat and depending on the cut of meat you have this may take time.
Chimukuyu chinedovi (Biltong in peanut sauce)
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb chimukuyu/biltong
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 ripe tomato chopped
- 1 teaspoon peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Soak the meat in hot water for an hour.
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Boil the meat until tender. Cooking time varies with the type of meat.
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In a separate saucepan, sauté onions and tomatoes together until tender. Add peanut butter, red pepper flakes and 1/2 cup of water. Simmer. If your meat was not salted during the drying process you can add salt now
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Add the meat to the peanut sauce and simmer on low for 15 minutes.
